Nova

March 19, 2023

I heard a knock on the guest door, so I sat up.

"Who is it?" I asked, before realizing that people on the outside of the rooms actually cannot hear a damn thing. I groaned and forced myself up off the bed, damn near waddling towards the wooden door.

"Good morning," I said with a smile upon seeing Aubrey's face. She didn't match my energy whatsoever, instead she kind of just stood there, limp and as if somebody were forcing her to do this.

"Somebody's in the living room, waiting for you," she stated in a low tone, "don't ask me shit."

I waited for my wife to turn the corner and disappear from my eyesight, before I headed downstairs. I wondered if it were my mom, or maybe Aubrey's mom given all that's happened. Or, maybe Nick decided that it's finally a good time for us to speak?

"No," I groaned as I entered the living room and was met with Rico, whom Aubrey was sitting beside. "Yes," Aubrey replied, her arms and legs folded in their own retrospects. "Don't think you have a choice Nova," Aubrey continued, "I'm calling the shots right now, unless you want this divorce to for sure happen? That is." I sighed dramatically.

I sat across from both Rico and Aubrey, on the other side in the other couch. I refused to look up, because this was fucking awkward, but Rico started to speak anyways. "Hi Nova," he said, "how are you?"

"I'd be better if you weren't here," I mumbled, but I'm not sure what Rico did because I was still looking down. I could however, see Aubrey's feet move from on the couch and begin coming towards me. I then felt a hand cup under my chin and lift my face up, meeting my eyes with Rico's.

"You're talking to Rico," Aubrey reminded me. "Not the floor. He's looking at you, so give him the same respect." I folded my arms, "okay mom."

"I wanted to apologize," Rico began, but I scorned. "Is this some type of joke?" I asked, looking over at Aubrey who was just standing at a middle point between Rico and I. "What's he apologizing for? Helping you? Hurting me?"

"He's talking to you Nova, not me," Aubrey said, but I huffed. "Yeah I know," I said with a full blown attitude, "which is stupid. You don't slip up twice and be sorry. Once is a mistake, twice is a decision."

Aubrey cocked and eyebrow, and folded her arms like how they'd been when she was on the couch. "Is that what you're telling yourself?" she asked.

I could feel my eyes squint involuntarily. "What on God's green earth does that fucking mean?" I asked my wife as I stood up, and was level with her. Aubrey shrugged, "well to my knowledge," she replied, "you cheated once. So, it was a mistake I guess?"

"Yes!" I damn near screeched, "yes Aubrey it was a fucking mistake! I wasn't thinking. It's obviously not something I enjoyed doing or I'd be fucking Nick every single day!" Aubrey chuckled.

"Only reason that didn't happen is probably because he already has a rotation of bitches, and you would've just been another burning hoe on his list."

"Oh," I said, "just like how you're just another statistic? You know 24% of lesbian women get cheated on within the first year of their marriage?"

Before I could finish that sentence, Aubrey smacked the actual shit out of me. I could hear Rico gasp, and I could feel the hot tears coming out of my eyes very fast. Likewise though, Aubrey was already crying.

"You're proud of that?" Aubrey asked, inching closer to me. I backed up, and looked over at Rico. "What were you here to say?" I asked, with tears rolling down my face. "Nah," Aubrey said, "you didn't wanna talk to him before, you're not talking to him now. It can wait, since you're proud of cheating."

"I'm not proud of cheating," I barely managed to say, looking at anything but Aubrey. She never put her hands on me, and I didn't know what to do. Was this even considered domestic, or just a typical cat fight?

"I can leave," Rico suggested, but I shook my head instantly. "Please don't," I begged, "please."

"Have I ever abused you Nova?" Aubrey asked, still inching closer to me. I backed up, right into a wall, and hadn't even realized it. "N-No," I stammered, "but you just s-s-slapped me."

"Imagine what's going through my head right now Nova," Aubrey's broken down voice spoke. "You cheated on me, and I have been desperately trying to find peace ever since. The first time we actually sort of get into depth about what happened, and you call me a statistic? That's basically mocking me!"

"And," Aubrey continued, "you should be the last one acting odd about violence, because correct me if I'm wrong but during our first therapy session, you put your hands on me so much that I had to restrain you." Tears began to fall down my face.

"What do you want out of me Aubrey?" I asked, tears streaming. "I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry."

"You didn't just hurt me. Time heals a lot and I know that, but time can't heal lost trust."

"What's the point of being married, if I cannot trust you?" Aubrey asked. "Every time you go out, I'll assume you're cheating. I won't want you to have even a pinch of privacy. I won't want you to do anything without me by your side. You had all my trust and then some Nova! Now it's gone."

"Look," Rico said standing up, "a big part of this is my fault." Aubrey turned towards Rico, "no it's not," she insisted, "I'm glad you told me that my partner was cheating." Rico shook his head, "Aubrey, I would rather you figured that out on your own, or by Nova coming clean. I think a part of your explosive reaction is simply because the outside parties in this situation, and how the issue came to light."

"And Nova," Rico continued, "I should have never even done that, quite frankly. Snooping through Nick's texts, scaring you, still trying to be in your life after that first rejection, it was all wrong. I'm so sorry for putting you in this position. And I swear, I will leave you alone after this."

It wasn't until then, that I had realized Rico had a bulging black eye. I mean, I had looked at him, yeah, but not his eyes, I avoided the eyes.

"Why are you really here?" I couldn't help but ask. "Is it to honestly say sorry, or is it in hopes that we'll be on your side from here on out so that we can protect you from Jason and Nick beating on you?"

Rico sighed. "I promise you, that's not why I'm here. There was a distinct face of sadness that you made that day at the park. That face haunted me. You kept popping up in my dreams with that face. When I'd be at home with nothing to do, you'd pop up in my memory with that face. I soon realized that I shouldn't have ever did this." I licked my lips. Aubrey had been silent through all of this, for fucking once.

"I'm not saying I support cheating, because I don't, but your relationship really just, isn't my business. And I realized afterwards, that doing what I did isn't gonna make you like me. You will never like me, because you're married. I've just gotta accept that." I nodded, "yeah," I mumbled.

***

It had been awkward once Rico left, because Aubrey and I were still going through this whole divorce thing. I felt like she kind of regretted filing though. Or maybe that was me trying to convince myself that she regretted it. I hope she did at least.

"You can sleep in the room tonight," Aubrey said, "but no touching me. I'll put up a divider between." I nodded, "fair enough," I answered, "can I still call you babe? Or is that off limits too?"

"Just call me Aubz," she advised, as we both sat at the kitchen table. Pepper was feet away from us.

Suddenly, I felt an unbelievable, cramping pain. "Ow," I moaned as I doubled over on the floor. "Nova?" Aubrey asked hovering over me.

I didn't answer, everything hurt in that moment. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. "Shit," Aubrey groaned, though I couldn't see what she was doing. It would take up too many muscles to look up. Everything hurt.

"There's blood all over the chair," Aubrey told me, "are you on your period?"

"No," I cried, "I can't breathe!"

"My phone," Aubrey barely got out, "where the fuck is it? Shit!" I could see her feet stop over me, "I'll be right back Nova," she assured me, "please try your best to breathe for a minute."

Moments later I heard the neighbors running into our house, as I remembered that one of them was a licensed EMT. "Call 9-1-1!" he ordered Aubrey, as my consciousness began to go in and out.

***

Aubrey

"Is she gonna die?" I asked a nurse, as Jason, May, Lewis, and Hailey sat with me. Hailey rushed over as soon as she got the call, even though it was past midnight on a school night. The nurse shook her head, "no, she will not expire."

"If you had waited even half an hour, she would've lost her life to sepsis," she told me, "but given you didn't wait, Mrs Nova will be A-okay." Just as the nurse said those words Nick came in. "Sorry," he said, "this place is confusing." I rolled my eyes.

"Sit," Jason ordered, and for some odd reason, this mistake of a fucking human decided to sit with me.

"So what happened?" I asked the nurse, and she looked at her clip board. "Did Nova know she was pregnant?" she asked, and our heads all slowly looked over at Nick. "What?" he asked.

"Well," I said, "y'all are full of secrets. So tell us, was Nova pregnant? Was that another secret?"

"No," Nick answered, "she was most certainly not pregnant. She only told me about an STI."

"Very well," the nurse continued, "she had an ectopic pregnancy, which is basically when the child grows in the wrong place. We had to remove the baby surgically or else she would've died." Jason raised his hand as if we'd been in school.

"Yes?" the nurse asked.

"This might be a dumb question," Jason began, "but is the baby fully developed?" This time, everybody was slowly looking over at Jason. "Dude," I said, "their whole sexcapade wasn't even two months ago. How the hell would that kid be developed?"

"I said it might be dumb question," Jason mumbled as he rubbed his left bicep with his right hand and looked at the floor. "Geez."